The County Championship

Constituted 1889; first played 1890

Sport — first-class cricket in England and Wales

The first-class cricket league of the eighteen English and Welsh counties, formally constituted on 16 December 1889 and first played in 1890, when eight clubs took part and Surrey were the inaugural champions. Unofficial championships had been claimed by newspapers for decades before that. It ran as a single table until 2000, when it split into two divisions with promotion and relegation, and it has produced many of the records of the first-class game, including the highest individual score ever made.

How to spot them

▸Eighteen counties, seventeen English and one Welsh, playing four-day cricket from April to September
▸Yorkshire's thirty-odd titles; Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Somerset have never won it
▸Two divisions since 2000, with promotion and relegation
▸Bonus points in the first innings on top of sixteen for a win

Key facts

Constituted in December 1889 and first contested the following summer by eight clubs, with Surrey the first official champions (1890)

Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire

Brian Lara's 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston (1994)

Still the highest individual score in first-class cricket anywhere

Hedley Verity took ten wickets for ten runs against Nottinghamshire at Headingley (1932)

The best innings analysis in the history of first-class cricket

Glamorgan's admission in 1921 fixed the field at seventeen for the next seventy-one years (1921)

The only Welsh side in the English first-class game

Durham were admitted in 1992, taking the field to eighteen (1992)

The first new county since Glamorgan

Split into two divisions with promotion and relegation from the 2000 season (2000)

Ending 110 years of a single table

Cancelled for the pandemic summer of 2020 and replaced by a competition named after a Surrey and England fast bowler (2020)

The Bob Willis Trophy, won by Essex

Nottinghamshire took their seventh title in 2025, their first since 2010, ending Surrey's run (2025)

Surrey had been going for a fourth in a row

Quick-fire facts

•Formally constituted at a meeting on 16 December 1889; the first season under the official title was 1890, won by Surrey
•Yorkshire have won it 33 times including one shared title, far more than any other county
•Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Somerset have never won the official championship
•Worcestershire joined the first-class counties in 1899, Northamptonshire in 1905, Glamorgan in 1921 and Durham in 1992
•Brian Lara's 501 not out in 1994 is the highest score in first-class cricket; Hedley Verity's 10 for 10 in 1932 the best bowling
•Yorkshire's 887 all out against Warwickshire in 1896 is the highest team total made in the competition
•A win is worth 16 points, a draw or tie 8, with batting and bowling bonus points from the first 110 overs of each first innings
•The 2020 season was abandoned for the pandemic and replaced by the Bob Willis Trophy
•Rothesay took over as title sponsor in 2025, after Specsavers and LV=
•Nottinghamshire were champions in 2025; the 2026 season ran to the end of September

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources

ESPNcricinfo — County Championship results and records
John Wisden & Co — Wisden Cricketers' Almanack